GULLS WIN GAME ONE BEHIND O'BRIEN'S BIG OUTING

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Newport Gulls

operations@newportgulls.com

NEWPORT R.I. - The Newport Gulls started their three peat quest as the Mystic Schooners came into town for Round 1 of the Southern division playoffs for a rematch of Wednesday’s regular season finale where Mystic got the last laugh. The season has turned over and there is a new beginning at Cardines. Finbar O’Brien (Gonzaga) gets the start for the Gulls in this first playoff game and Nick Coniglio gets the start for the Schooners. 

This game was the opposite from what happened between these two teams on Wednesday night as both pitchers had a no hitter going into the 6th inning. Finbar O’Brien (Gonzaga) was dealing on the mound and put down Mystic hitters in a hurry with no trouble. O’Brien finished the game with nine total strikeouts over six innings of work. 

The Newport Gulls only needed one run to take care of business against the Schooners and came off the bat of Petey Craska (North Alabama) as he hit a long sac fly to score Colby Wallace (East Carolina) for the only run of the game. 

Relieving O’Brien on the mound in the 7th inning was Marcel Kulik (Virginia Tech) and Kulik came in and struck out the first five batters he faced and showed his best stuff in the biggest part of the game. Kulik ended up with the save, O’Brien the win and the Newport pitching staff was on point in game one. 

The play of the game came in the 9th inning as Mystic was threatening. Ryan Novak (Miami) fielded a hit and threw a perfect ball to catcher Adam Agresti (St Johns) to get the lead runner and the tying run at the plate and to keep the one run lead for Newport. 

Kulik finished the job for Newport with a strikeout and the Gulls are one step closer to the three peat. 

The Newport Gulls will be on the road tomorrow night as they travel to Mystic for game two of this three game series. The Gulls look to finish off this first round at Fitch Field, first pitch being at 6:35 pm and broadcast on NECBL+. 

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The Newport Gulls, members of the 13-team New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL), are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded as the Rhode Island Gulls in 1998 in Cranston, R.I., before moving to Newport in 2001. In addition to recruiting, fielding, and developing a team of the nation's top collegiate baseball athletes and attracting 50,000 fans annually to Cardines Field, the predominantly volunteer organization strives to benefit the community via summer camps, reading programs, fundraisers, scholarships, and charitable donations – totaling over $1 million since 2001. The Gulls are eight-time champions of the NECBL – the winningest franchise in league history – and were ranked as the overall No. 1 summer collegiate baseball team in the country by Perfect Game USA in 2012.

For more information about the Newport Gulls, visit facebook.com/newportgulls, follow the Gulls on Twitter @NewportGulls or visit www.newportgulls.com.